Hopefully everyone has already read it and scheduled time to attend and write comments. Randy has groups attending the Hines, Christmas Valley, Bend and Portland meetings. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to contact Randy.

In the State Director's land page, Randy makes some good points on comments.

However for the Vale District, Virtue Flat is not a part of their review at this time, as it is part of the Baker Resource Area, and the RMP Revision is just getting started there, any comments to the extent of keeping it an open designation are going to be beyond the scope of the amendment of the Southeast and Lakeview RMP's, and should probably be directed to the Baker Field office.

While you can ask for WSA designations to be removed, that is also beyond the scope of the document, and something that BLM cannot do. Once a WSA is created, only Congress can deal with it by either designating it Wilderness or releasing it. BLM can only make a recommendation as to suitablity or not. It won't hurt to ask they not be found suitable, but that is not a decision that BLM can make. BLM no longer has the authority to create any WSA.

One of our members did a GPS survey of the North Lake area several years ago, and more recently a BLM staffer went back and looked it over again on the ground. These maps need to be dug out and used in the wilderness characteristic study and any routes that are there should disqualify that area as having said characteristics.

Vale district has asked for and gotten some help in GPS'ing routes on their district, and these results should be used in the same manner and the North Lake material.

As for moving the fossil protection area back to get that section of dunes reopened to OHV use, you can ask, but again that will be beyond what they can do. National direction is that fossil protection will override OHV use anytime, anywhere.